SECOND EDITION 
























FEB 26 1906 

0 , ot 0, 


0 


* - v 


4 

;* t 


* « * t. ♦ 

« <* V 

« • <f « • 


# •* - »* * 

*: • 

•« « 

• * * 
* • • • * 




The South Pass Gold District. 


♦ LOCATION AND TRANSPORTATION. 

This district is situated in the south-central part of Fre¬ 
mont County, Wyoming, near the southern end of the Wind 
River range of mountains and about sixty miles in a direct 
line north of Point of Rocks station, on the Union Pacific 
railroad, the nearest railroad point. 

A daily stage and mail route runs from Rawlins, on the 
Union Pacific railroad, to Lander, 135 miles, with connections 
at Meyersville, ninety miles out of Rawlins, for Lewiston, 
Atlantic and South Pass City. 

Lander, the county seat of Fremont County, may be 
reached by team, about forty miles from South Pass, and 
stage connections there made for Thermopolis and Cody, on 
the Burlington and Missouri River railroad, and to Casper, 
on the Chicago and Northwestern railroad. 

The principal road is from Rock Springs, on the Union 
Pacific railroad, a distance of eighty miles, having stations 
along the route and being used for freighting purposes. 

The best method of reaching the district for a short stay 
is by team from Rock Springs, as the eighty miles to South 
Pass may be covered in two days without material inconven¬ 
ience, and good accommodations had at Washington’s ranch 
as a half way station. Stops may also be made at the Four¬ 
teen-Mile ranch, fourteen miles out of Rock Springs; at 
Zemba’s Wells, twenty-five miles out, and at Pacific Springs, 
thirteen miles from South Pass. Teams may be had at Rock 



4 


Springs at reasonable rates, and drivers are furnished, if de¬ 
sired. 

South Pass has the best hotel, and this may readily be 
made headquarters while the district is being investigated. 
Good meals and beds may also be had at Atlantic, and a new 
hotel is about to be erected at that place, which should be com¬ 
pleted this season, and will insure ample accommodations. 

HISTORY. 

Gold was discovered in this region in 1842, and from that 
time until 1869 efforts were made to work the rich placers 
known to exist there, when the great rush to South Pass oc¬ 
curred in the latter year and the placers rich enough to pay 
when worked on a limited, crude scale were promptly worked 
out, and the miners sought other opportunities in the then 
new fields of Colorado and Montana. 

During this time the Carissa lode was opened up and paid 
large returns, followed by the Miners’ Delight at Peabody 
Hill, the Burr at Lewiston and numerous other properties 
that were worked for a time with great success, but were 
allowed to run down and were abandoned when the level of 
water and the base ores were reached. 

Many attempts to start up these properties have been 
made, but usually by men of limited capital or little experience 
in mining, they becoming discouraged when they failed to 
treat the ores successfully, and for years little was done in 
the district, but with the new and cheaper methods of treat¬ 
ment and testing of refractory or difficult ores, which are par¬ 
ticularly adapted for these ores, the district seems to be taking 
on new life and prosperity. A great many experiments on 
these ores have been made during the past year, and a number 
of men experienced in mining and ore treatment have taken 
hold of promising properties, all of which indicates a more 
extensive and practical development of the ores that certainly 
exist here. 


— 5 — 


GEOLOGY. 

The district may be said to consist of an island of meta- 
morphic schists of the Algonkian period lying upon the gran¬ 
ites of the Archean, and with several intrusions of granite and 
dyke rocks in the schists at different localities. 

The granites of this section of the Wind River Range are 
usually the common red feldsitic granites, and here show an 
occasional gray granite island or band, usually of limited ex¬ 
tent. Dykes of diorite and allied rocks are also noted in the 
granite, but to the present time nothing of value has been 
reported from this region. 

The schists show for a distance of about thirty miles long 
and from ten to twelve miles wide, the longer axis bearing 
northeasterly and southwesterly, in the same general direction 
as the strike of the schist, and with a general dip to the north, 
varying from 45° to the perpendicular. 

Around these schists are the granites on the northwest 
and the succeeding sedimentary formations oh the southerly 
sides. 

The schists vary in composition in different parts of the 
district, but are usually hornblende schists, with some mica 
schist and chlorite schist associated therewith, and, as a rule, 
these varieties are very fine grained. 

At various places, as near the William J. Bryan mine, 
formerly called the Rose, an exposure of a garnet schist is 
noted, and in the vicinity of the granites some gneisses are 
found, but these are usually of limited extent and only of 
local importance. 

These schists frequently show tourmaline in small quan¬ 
tities and, locally, pyrite and magnetite are found as a con¬ 
stituent part of the schist. 

Nearly all the rocks of this region, but especially the 
above mentioned schists, show strong evidences of alteration 
and change, in many instances giving an appearance entirely 
foreign to the character of the rock, but an examination with 


an ordinary field lens is often sufficient to determine the true 
character at once. 

This altering material is usually silica, and where the 
rocks are weathered, as on an exposed outcrop, a hard quartz- 
ose character is noted, and these are frequently called “dykes,” 
but are simply altered schists and frequently carry gold values. 

Dykes occur in these schists, especially in the old Miners’ 
Delight mine at Peabody Hill, where diorite and diabase 
dykes are noted; at the Mary Ellen mine, near Atlantic; at the 
Carissa at South Pass, and along the northwestly edge of the 
schists in the vicinity of the Little Joe and at Gold Creek. 

At the Miners’ Delight, dykes of porphyritic material are 
noted, and these extend to the “Rustler Belt,” north of At¬ 
lantic City, where the Mormon Crevice and Poiree Estate 
properties have produced very rich ore. 

TOPOGRAPHY. 

The district, topographically, is a series of broad table 
lands, devoid of timber, rising from the Sweetwater River 
Valley northward to the foot of the Wind River Mountains 
and cut by numerous creeks that furnish the water for the 
district, and whose beds and tributary gulches have held the 
placer gold that first attracted attention to this region. Willow 
Creek at South Pass, Rock Creek at Atlantic City and Straw¬ 
berry Gulch at Lewiston are the principal creeks. 

Four camps were established in the early days. But 
three of these survive, namely, South Pass, Atlantic and Lew¬ 
iston, the camp at Miners' Delight being now deserted. 

South Pass is the most westerly of these, and has been 
kept up for years by the work at the Carissa mine, this being 
the deepest and principal mine of the district. 

THE CARISSA MINE. 

This property, located in 1867, has been a phenomenal 
producer for many years, often under adverse conditions of 


— 7 — 


working and management, and is today the best known and 
developed property in the whole South Pass district. 

The Carissa high grade ore occurs in quartz lenses, lying 
in the schist, having the same dip and strike as the schist, and 
these lenses occur at irregular intervals. 

Associated with these quartz lenses are bodies of min¬ 
eralized schist carrying pay values in gold, and lying between 
or near the quartz lenses have been found schist ores of very 
high grade, but with the usual intervals of lower grade ma¬ 
terial in the same ore. 

Until recently the development of these ores has been 
carried on on the high grade lenses above mentioned, and the 
low grade ores practically ignored, owing to lack of facilities 
for treating them profitably, but during the past winter a cross¬ 
cut has been run west from the lower or 400-foot level, and 
the occurrence condition of these low grade ores determined. 
This cross-cut is 180 feet long and cut through a series of 
quartz lenses and schist leads, which were found to vary in 
value from a trace to $50 per ton gold, but the free condition 
remained unchanged as in the other parts of the mine. Tests 
on this work showed an average mill value of $6 per ton for 
the whole length of 180 feet. 

This is the most important work accomplished in the 
district for many years, as it demonstrates the existence of 
great bodies of low grade ore, capable of treatment on a 
large scale, and indicates the course to be pursued in the other 
mines of the district. 

The present development in the Carissa consists of some 
2,500 feet of drifting, cross-cuts, etc., with a shaft 384 feet 
deep, following the dip of the vein, equipped with hoist and 
necessary appliances for handling the ore on a limited scale, 
though it is understood that a new plant, suitable for the thor¬ 
ough development of the mine, is to be erected by the new 
owners and the whole property thoroughly exploited on a 
commercial scale. 


— 8 — 


In the upper portion of the Carissa workings the usual 
oxidized ores were found, and these were very rich, as shown 
by the early history of the mine. As development proceeded, 
the oxidized ores passed out and the sulphide forms came in, 
being mostly arsenical pyrites, but experience in milling these 
ores has shown the free gold character of the ore still per¬ 
tains, and on the lower level from 60 to 90 per cent, of the 
gold values may be saved upon the plates, and ore is fre¬ 
quently met with that shows free gold associated with the 
pyrites, both in the quartz and adjacent schists. 

The ore has been run through a ten-stamp mill, over 
amalgamating plates and concentrating tables, the concentrates 
being saved and the tailings being settled with a view of 
cvaniding, this process having been experimented with and 
has given most successful results with these ores. 

The full extent of the ores in this mine has not vet been 

m/ 

determined, and will require a system of further development 
by sinking to still greater depths, cross-cutting through and 
beyond the lenses now known to determine the extent of the 
profitably mineralized zone, and drifts on the vein to get under 
the formation that showed great values on the surface in 
former years, but which have been neglected, but the develop¬ 
ments of the past year have shown beyond a doubt that a 
great mine is here, and, with proper development and treat¬ 
ment of the ore, may be yet made a great property. 

At South Pass the Franklin, the Curry and the Carry 
Shields and others are lying idle for want of capital to push 
their further deveolpment, and are entitled to a close investi¬ 
gation. A recent discovery is the Copper Surprise, one mile 
north of the town, where a strong lead has been cut into asd 
shown considerable copper pyrites, carrying fair values in gold 
that promises well for the future. 

Between Atlantic and South Pass are a number of prop¬ 
erties that have been worked at various times and a great deal 
of ore shipped or milled from the properties that now lie idle. 


— 9 — 


The Doc Barr, Duncan, Richard Albert and others have 
shown considerable good ore when worked, and are yet un¬ 
developed, but show conditions similar to the Carissa, and 
merit extensive and persevering development along the lines 
indicated in the Carissa. 


ATLANTIC. 

Atlantic City is situated in the central part of the work¬ 
ing district, four miles east of South Pass, and is the working 
headquarters of the Dexter Mining and Development Com¬ 
pany of Rochester, N. Y., the principal operators here at the 
present time, who have recently added to their original large 
holdings and are now operating the Tabor Grand, the Bryan 
and Dexter Tunnel, beside a number of smaller works for as¬ 
sessment, etc. 

This company holds the placer ground on Rock Creek 
of the old Christina Lake Placer Company, better known as 
the Granier Placers, consisting of 1,600 acres of patented 
placer ground, and controls the whole bed of Rock Creek to 
its junction with the Sweetwater River, about 3,000 acres, by 
placer claims held by location in the usual manner. 

The Dexter Company have made extensive tests in the 
bed of this creek by hydraulic elevators and other mechanical 
means for handling the gravel, and will put in dredges as the 
result of these experiments. The water for this work is se¬ 
cured from Christina Lake and Rock Creek by a system of 
about twenty-five miles of ditches, flumes, etc., and a good 
supply of water is assured. 

An interesting feature of these experiments is the high 
assays obtained from the black sand after the free or placer 
gold had been taken out, the remaining sand assaying from 
$400 to $800 per ton in many instances. 

The Dexter Tunnel is being driven to cross-cut several 
well defined and well known leads for development purposes, 
and will cut these different leads at depths varying from 217 


-10 


to 395 feet in a total length of 2,800 feet, some six leads 
crossing the line of the tunnel, which has reached a length of 
1,200 feet and has cut three blind leads of low grade ore, and 
is being rapidly pushed ahead by air drills, a complete me¬ 
chanical plant being installed for this purpose. 

This company have installed a hoist and built a shaft 
house on the Rose or Bryan mine, near the Garfield, above 
Atlantic, on the line of the Dexter Tunnel, and are sinking a 
shaft on the vein to connect eventually with the main tunnel, 
and are running drifts on the vein on two levels. This Bryan 
mine has produced a great deal of the richest and most beau¬ 
tiful gold ore of the region, but the values have been difficult to 
save. 

The Mormon Crevice is another rich lead that crosses 
the tunnel line, and the tunnel will develop a number of prop¬ 
erties at a depth sufficient to determine beyond a doubt their 
values and extent. 

A new mill is to be erected by the Dexter Company at a 
point on Rock Creek just below Atlantic to treat both their 
own and custom ores, extensive experiments having been 
made during the past year to determine the best method of 
treatment. This mill will be of 150-ton capacity, using twenty 
1,050-pound stamps with amalgamating plates, and having 
complete cyanide department for saving values other than 
free gold. The material for this plant is now being freighted 
in from Point of Rocks station, on the Union Pacific railroad, 
and will be erected at once. 

The Garfield mine has been doing development work in 
the two lower levels for the past year, cross-cuts being run to 
determine the value of the lower shoots. A new shaft house 
has been erected to replace one destroyed by fire. 

The Ground Hog Group on Rock Creek, above Atlantic, 
is one of the best prospects in the district, and shows char¬ 
acteristics similar to the Carissa, having the lenses of quartz 
ore and heavily mineralized schist carrying profitable values. 


—II 


Development work only has been done on this property, and 
it has shown up a fine proposition for further development on 
a large scale. 

Development work has been done on the Mary Ellen, 
near the Tabor Grand, and the ore milled by a Huntington 
mill with success. This vein is a fissure and shows very rich 
ore, and is unique among the bedded veins of this locality, but 
is evidently a valuable property. 

The Pay Rock Group at Peabody Hill shows a number of 
veins, or quartz stringers, in what is evidently a huge body of 
ore, but so far developed only to a shallow depth and on the 
rich streaks. Some 5°° feet of development work has been 
done, mostly drifts, and considerable ore taken out, most of 
which milled profitably. A tunnel has been run in some 600 
feet at a point near the foot of the hill, but has not yet reached 
the vein. 

MINERS’ DELIGHT. 

On the east side of Peabody Hill, three miles east of 
Atlantic, the old Miners’ Delight mine is located, said to have 
produced $1,000,000 in gold, but which has been abandoned 
for years. 

The vein is a fissure from four to six feet wide, associated 
with the coarse crystalline porphyry noted above, and contained 
very rich gold values, but was not developed over 200 feet in 
depth, as far as can now be ascertained. 

This ore was free milling and milled on the ground, but 
no efifort was made to do economical work, and the percentage 
saved was of small importance at that time. It is believed 
that this property is one of the best high grade development 
properties in the west, if it is taken up in the right way, as 
from all data available regarding its previous working, it is 
evident that no attempt was made to do anything but take 
out the richest pockets, and systematic development was not 
thought of. 


- 12 - 


LEWISTON. 

At this camp, which was opened up in 1879, when the 
famous Burr mine was discovered, development has been slow 
for the past few years, but this season the several prominent 
properties have been taken up by new capitalists and renewed 
activity is apparent. 

The Burr shows the same lens condition hitherto noted, 
and has been very rich, but, aside from the workings on the 
original lens, little development has taken place. The ore 
was free milling and easily handled. 

The Bullion mine, Iron Duke, Ruby and others in this 
vicinity have produced heavily at various times, but have not 
been worked steadily. 

Experiments have been made at the Bullion mine with the 
Cyanide process on the lower grade of ore with success, but 
results have not been given to the public. 

Prospecting is again active in Lewiston, and during the 
past year a number of lenses of quartz have been found which 
show the characteristic free gold condition of the Burr and 
other famous properties, but this camp needs a deep mine 
similar to the Carissa to demonstrate its value and permanence, 
and there is no doubt but that the showings here fully warrant 
the necessary expenditure, in view of the showings already 
made in other parts of the district. 

PLACERS. 

In recent years but little placer mining has been done, and 
that on a small scale, except the plant of the Dexter Mining 
and Development Company on Rock Creek, below Atlantic, al¬ 
ready referred to. 

Small placers with sluices, rockers, etc., have been worked 
in nearly all the gulches of the vicinity with varying success, 
but at present this work is confined to small workings on Straw¬ 
berry Gulch, near Miners’ Delight, and one or two other places. 

Some work has been going on on the old Oregon Butte 


13 - 


Placers, southwest of South Pass, where a dry placer process 
has been put in, but results have not been reported. 

ORES AND TREATMENT. 

In the past the attention of the owner and miner has 
been directed to the high grade ores, but it is upon the great 
bodies of low grade ores which certainly exist in this vicinity 
that the district must depend in the future for prosperity of 
the camps, although it is very likely that other lenses, fully 
as rich as those of the past, will be opened up and go to swell 
the production of the district. 

The grade of ore of this district has certainly been re¬ 
markably high, and had proper care been used in handling 
or testing the ores, the percentage of values saved would have 
been equally high, but it is a fact in many instances that ores 
were sent to the nearest mill without regard to the fitness of the 
proposed treatment for the ore in question, and when the 
values were not saved the mine was turned down. 

It is admitted that the process of stamping and amal¬ 
gamating the free values is suited to some of the mines of 
this district, especially the Carissa, as shown by the mill fig¬ 
ures from work actually done at the present plant, but it 
should be stated with all possible emphasis that this method 
is not applicable to all the ores of this district. 

Numerous instances have been stated on good authority, 
where different lots of ore have been milled and only io to 30 
per cent, of the values saved, the balance going into the tail¬ 
ings dump or washed into the creeks. 

Various reasons have been assigned for this state of 
affairs, and samples of ores examined have shown the gold 
in several forms, which left no doubt as to the variety or 
scope of the processes needed for treatment. 

Space does not permit discussion of the ores here, but 
it may be mentioned that the “brittle gold” and “crystallized 


* — 14 — 


gold,” often spoken of in this locality, have been found to be 
partially oxidized tellurium minerals, which, of course, are 
not suited for stamping in their natural state and are wasted 
by such methods, the tailings values almost equaling the orig¬ 
inal ore values in well defined instances. 

“Rusty gold” is common and difficult of saving by amal¬ 
gamation, as usual, but may be handled with proper precau¬ 
tion. 

No one process has yet come to light which would 
successfully treat all the ores of this district, and before 
any property is taken up a thorough test at some well 
equipped and reliable testing works should be made on as 
large an amount of ore as can be obtained of the grade or 
kind it is proposed to treat, and the works constructed ac¬ 
cording to the results obtained from this treatment. 

In these tests especial attention should be given to the 
saving and handling of the fines, of which an unusual amount 
is often produced from the nature of the minerals and ore 
constituents here noted. 

Attempts have been made at different times to treat the 
old mine dumps with the Cyanide process, in some instances 
with success, but in many cases the people handling the work 
were not familiar with the process and the experiment did 
not succeed, owing to the ores experimented with not being 
properly crushed or handled, but it is believed this process, 
with proper precautions, to be determined by experiment on 
each ore or property, will undoubtedly be found to be adapted 
for a large amount of ore in this district. 

The results of the extensive experiments in the Dexter 
Company’s ores and those made on some Lewiston ores last 
year made the Dexter mill possible, and the commercial work¬ 
ings of these ores by this mill will undoubtedly solve many 
problems that have been local puzzles for many years. 


—15 




WAGES, FUEL, ETC. 

Standard union wages are paid throughout the district, 
and living is about the same as at other of¥-the-road camps. 

Fuel used is wood, which is delivered by contract at from 
$3 to $ 3 - 5 ° P er cord. During the past season some difficulty 
was experienced in obtaining wood, but if application to cut 
wood in the forest reserves is made early in the season the 
desired supply may be readily obtained. 

The oils of the Popo-Agie fields, near Lander, are suit¬ 
able for fuel, and there is no limit to the supply that may be 
obtained. 

Tests on these oils give the following results: 

Flashing point. 90 degrees Fahrenheit 

Burning point.136 degrees Fahrenheit 

Specific gravity.900 

Heating power.10,437 calories per gramme 

Gasoline.20-25 per cent. 

Kerosene.55-60 per cent. 

Light lubricating oils. .. . 5-10 per cent. 

Paraffine. 2-4 per cent. 

Coke and loss. 4-6 per cent. 

Asphaltic residue.None 

The oil appears black, is reddish brown by transmitted 
light and has a strong, disagreeable odor. 

In refining this oil, the products are kerosene and gasoline, 
about 35-40 per cent., and the balance being lubricating oils 
and asphaltum. The oil is of heavy asphaltum base and suit¬ 
able for high grade fuel, tests giving 1,571,000-foot pounds of 
energy per pound of oil. One pound of this oil will convert 
19.40 pounds of water at 212 degrees Fahrenheit into steam. 

South of the district there are numerous outcrops of coal 
that have not yet been developed, and with the growth of a de¬ 
mand for coal, this field would be profitably opened up. The 
coals are lignites of high grade, suitable for steam and heating 
purposes. 













16— 


Lumber, etc., may be hacl at from $20 to $30 per M. 

Provisions and miners’ supplies may be had at South Pass, 
Atlantic and Lewiston, where well equipped stocks are kept, 
and prices are about the same as obtain under similar condi¬ 
tions of transportation elsewhere. 

Freight rates are quoted at $1 per cwt., and when ore is 
loaded out to the railroad a rate of 50 cents per cwt. is made. 

CLIMATE. 

Work and freighting may be and are carried on at all 
seasons of the year, as the climate is no more severe here than 
at other places of similar altitude (viz., 7,500 feet), and the 
roads are usually in good condition at all seasons. 

FUTURE TRANSPORTATION. 

The principal drawback to the development of this cer¬ 
tainly rich country is the distance from a railroad and the 
barren character of the intervening country, which makes it 
a necessity that the camps shall supply the whole business for 
a connecting road, aside from stock shipments, has prevented 
any tangible attempt for railroad communication up to the 
present time, but with the wonderfully rich agricultural coun¬ 
try that lies around Lander, and the other resources of that 
vicinity being so rapidly developed, it is certain that this ob¬ 
jection will be removed within a comparatively short time and 
the question of transportation solved. 


Briefly, it may be stated that the South Pass gold district 
is not a bonanza country, although the past history of the re¬ 
gion records some wonderful finds, but it is certainly worthy 
of the close attention and investigation of the mining investor 
who understands his business and is competent, both finan¬ 
cially and technically, to develop promising prospects into pay¬ 
ing mines under the present conditions of transportation and 
to experiment with the ore conditions until a satisfactory pro¬ 
cess of treatment is developed. 





